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The map allows users to view not only book sales by states but also the top five best-selling conservative and liberal books per state. For example: Hot in Pennsylvania right now is “The Betrayal of the American Dream” (dubbed a “blue” book) and “TheAmateur” (dubbed a “red” book).

“Book sales by geography always have interesting things to say about our states, and an election season is a particularly good time to use this data to help customers follow the changing political conversation across the country,” said Chris Schluep, a senior editor at Amazon.

Couldn’t Amazon’s classification of a book as “red” or “blue” spark a partisan war all on its own? They assure us: Books with “no clear political bias” will not be included.

In its release announcing the venture, Amazon says it already has unearthed some noteworthy findings. They include:

-“American reading purchases currently swing right: more have bought “red” books than “blue” (56% of purchases are red; 44% of purchases are blue)”

-”Despite overall reading behavior, in the last 30 days Americans have preferred buying Obama’s biography to Romney’s”

The information, for what it’s worth, may not bode well for Democrats: Even California’s buying power skews slightly “red.” The only states with “blue”-tilting book purchases are Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, New York and D.C. The rest of the country is “red.”

Readers' Comments (8)

It must be so nice to be an ignorant leftist and not have to worry about those pesky little things like history and facts.

I guess the neomarxists in the Dem party don't need to bother with reading. They have been told what to think and how to vote by their masters and they're all too happy to fall in line; facts be damned.

These metrics clearly show the left is less informed, so if ignorance really is bliss, why do leftists continuously poll as less happy than conservatives? Weird.

Perhaps Obama's book is trumping Romney's because Dinesh Souza uses it in his new movie and cites it endlessly in his book, which figures prominently. And, it probably is part of the other books on the red list. May not be because everyone wants to know more about a president that has been there for 4 years, but to actually read the information in order to study it, now in hindsight.

It must be so nice to be an ignorant leftist and not have to worry about those pesky little things like history and facts.

I guess the neomarxists in the Dem party don't need to bother with reading. They have been told what to think and how to vote by their masters and they're all too happy to fall in line; facts be damned.

These metrics clearly show the left is less informed, so if ignorance really is bliss, why do leftists continuously poll as less happy than conservatives? Weird.

The article makes no mention of the veracity of the red book-blue book contents yet somehow you managed to insert your own. You then take your own imaginative findings and further apply them in an editorial format that jumps to multiple conclusions without a single supporting data point.

Most of all you forgot : Garbage In --Garbage Out Your post sure proved the expression's worth.

Another way of looking at it is that conservatives are more likely to buy the "conservative books" - i.e. propaganda - that their pundits and leaders tell them to read. It reenforces their existing beliefs and absolves them of any requirement for critical analysis.

Meanwhile, progressives are more likely to spend their time reading unbiased, or even "conservative", materials so that they can decide for themselves what is true and what is propaganda.

The article makes no mention of the veracity of the red book-blue book contents yet somehow you managed to insert your own. You then take your own imaginative findings and further apply them in an editorial format that jumps to multiple conclusions without a single supporting data point.

Exactly. There is little merit to the 'study' aside from its curiosity factor.

Anyone making ill-informed remarks such as WhatGotUsHere is only putting their ignorance on full display for all to see. Nothing he states is defensible.